Switzerland: Holcim says it wants to reach at least 40% of sustainable financing by 2024. It intends to put climate action, water preservation and safety at the heart of its strategy to do this. The company has linked this commitment with the completion of two new sustainability-linked financing transactions worth above Euro2.8bn. It has also joined the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Taskforce alongside 60 companies representing a combined US$1.7Tn in market capitalisation. The UNGC CFO Taskforce aligns members’ finance strategies with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

Holcim’s CFO Géraldine Picaud said, “Sustainability is at the core of what we do. That's why we set ourselves some of the most ambitious goals in our industry. Walking the talk, we are putting climate, water and safety at the heart of our financing strategy. To make a bigger impact, I am delighted to be a member of the UNGC CFO Taskforce to move this agenda forward with my peers.”

In August 2021, Holcim refinanced a Euro3bn syndicated credit line linking it to climate and safety in line with the UN SDGs. The cost of the credit facility will depend on the company’s achievement of its annual targets in these areas. In September 2021, Holcim placed a new 10-year US$100m sustainability-linked bond, based on its 2030 CO₂ reduction target. This issue represents its first private placement of a US Dollar medium-term note linked to climate action. The investor will be entitled to a higher coupon should the company not meet its climate objective. These actions follow the company’s Euro850m sustainability-linked bond issued in November 2020.

US: Mississippi Lime Company says it will increase its prices for its quicklime, hydrated lime, specialty, and calcium carbonate products by up to 15%, subject to contractual obligations, in January 2022. It has blamed this on “significant cost pressures and unprecedented supply chain challenges” caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent economic recovery. Energy, labour, freight and material costs have all been reported as rising.

India: Finland-based Betolar has launched a partnership with sustainable housing company Tara. The arrangement is intended to enhance India’s ‘green’ construction sector by encouraging the use Betolar’s pre-cast concrete products. These use waste inputs to create a low-carbon alternative to Ordinary Portland Cement. Betolar has been working with Tara since around 2019 to bring its commercial products to the local market.

Betolar's Head of Asia said, "There is a tremendous appetite for sustainable construction materials in India which we are tapped into through our work with Tara and its mission to develop alternative and sustainable models for rural development, democratizing construction from the bottom up."

Germany: Cool Planet Technologies and Hereon have signed a memorandum of understanding with Holcim Deutschland to deliver a carbon capture system for a carbon capture and storage (CCS) trial at the producer’s Höver cement plant in Lower Saxony. Cool Planet Technologies will install their system, which is based on Hereon’s PolyActive membrane technology. The system will have a capture capacity of 5600t/yr and operate from early 2022 to early-mid-2023. If successful, two subsequent expansions will increase the system’s capacity to 170,000t/yr, commencing operation in 2024, and 1.3Mt/yr, commencing in 2026.

The suppliers say that their membrane-based capture system is capable of reducing the energy intensity and eliminating the need for other chemical inputs in CCS.